This invention relates to drums, particularly hand-played drums such as bongo drums and conga drums, and relates to improved arrangements for mounting a natural or synthetic drum skin to the drum body. The skin mounting arrangement for such hand-played drums must hold the edges of the skin firmly, but should also provide a smooth contoured surface that will be comfortable to the player's hands as he strikes the outer edge of the drum skin while playing the instrument.
Latin Percussion, the assignee of the present invention, has marketed bongo and conga drums for more than one year with its "Comfort Curve.RTM." rim, which is a rim having an inverted J-shaped cross-section, wherein the shorter edge of the rim bears against the skin and clamps the skin against the drum wire at a diameter that is less than the centerline diameter of the drum wire. The rim itself is shown in U.S. Des. Pat. No. 308,217 granted May 29, 1990.
The curvature of the top edge of the Comfort Curve rim provides a surface that is not sharp when struck by the hand. Nevertheless, long playing can still be uncomfortable since the curved portion of the rim projects outward into a region that can be struck by the heel of a player's hand.
Another prior arrangement is a drum rim having a lower cylindrical portion and an upper conical portion, wherein the conical portion engages the skin against the drum wire. This arrangement provides a smooth and tapered exterior surface, which is comfortable to play, but does not provide a secure engagement of the skin, since the conical portion engages the skin against the wire at a position that is radially outside the wire centerline. Accordingly, downward force on the rim tends to pull the skin around the wire in a direction that lessens tension on the skin. In addition, this arrangement does not provide for positive location and angular orientation of the rim. Accordingly, it is possible for the rim to be skewed such that the upper portion of the rim engages and clamps the skin against the drum body, thereby interfering with the desired skin vibrational properties and degrading the tone of the drum.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved drum having a drum rim which is comfortable to the player's hands, which provides a positive location of the drum rim and which securely tensions the drum skin.